The present disclosure relates generally to generation of postal indicia data streams, and particularly to generation of postal indicia data streams including additional information.
Postal meters provide postal indicia to indicate an amount of postage necessary for delivery of a mailpiece. Therefore, postal indicia incorporate security to prevent fraudulent activity. One example of an indicia is an IBI indicia, which is a two dimensional barcode rendering of a data stream. The IBI indicia data stream has a length of 89 bytes that includes 49 bytes of postal information (payload) and 40 bytes of security in the form of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) signature of the payload. As another example, an IBI-Lite indicia is a two dimensional barcode rendering of a 20 byte data stream having 14 bytes of payload and 6 bytes of security in the form of a Message Authentication Code (MAC) signature of the payload.
A postal security device (PSD) includes firmware having a cryptographic engine for generating a signature (security region) of the indicia data stream. Generation and processing of indicia data streams must meet certain FIPS (FEDERAL INFORMATION PROCESSING STANDARDS) requirements, such as FIPS 140-2 for example, which defines the protocol(s) for cryptographic module security requirements. As relates to cryptographic components within postal equipment, such as the PSD, compliance with FIPS requirements is determined by a third-party certification process, which is typically expensive and time-consuming.
Accommodation of additional information within the indicia data stream, such as information related to an additional desired postal service for example, requires a change to a format of the postal indicia. One example of a change to the format of the postal indicia includes an increase in size of the payload relative to the security region. Such indicia format changes require changes to encryption algorithms employed by PSD firmware and recertification of the PSD design. Revision of the firmware to accommodate a change in the indicia format is therefore undesirable. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an indicia generation arrangement that overcomes these drawbacks.